Chinese microblog regulates, suspends users--again

Pity
those of us who monitor the ups and downs of China's popular microblog platform,
Sina Weibo. For every story its users spread
in defiance of local censorship, there follows a clampdown.
Whether it's the latest strike against rumors, or real name registration,
or newly banned keywords,
there's always another restriction in the works as the service struggles to
keep a lid on sensitive conversations without driving away its user base. "China tightens grip on social media," we
might report, as the Financial Times did
in April. And last October. (The U.K.-based newspaper also noted China's grip tightening on lawyers
in March.) It's not that these headlines are misleading. They simply show how
difficult it is to illustrate the grip that always tightens, but never quite
suffocates.

To file under tightening grips and continuing clampdowns:
Wednesday's news that a Weibo moderator posted a draft document outlining new
guidelines for users, according to a translation of the content by Caijing magazine's English-language website. The contract restricts users from publishing information that "reveals national secrets," "spreads
rumors," "disrupts social order," or "has other content which is
forbidden by laws," among other regulations, according to the Caijing translation.
These are terms favored by the Chinese Communist Party's propaganda department
to justify censorship, and are vague enough to cover all kinds of sensitive
content.

To drive the point home,
Weibo disabled several high-profile user accounts in the past week, according
to Hong Kong's South China Morning Post. The reason for those
closures was not clear, though users like the novelist Hao Qun, who writes as Murong
Xuecun, believed his suspension from the site--which he was told would last at
least a month--was for his posts on blind legal activist Chen Guangcheng. Another
blacklisted user told the Post he had shared speculation about the
Chinese leadership, notably a rumor about Premier Wen Jiabao stepping down. Plus ça change.

So what's actually new
about this news? Well, the shutdowns were announced directly to users by Sina
management, though apparently at the behest of top censors, the Post reported.
Recent punitive measures against microblogs, like the temporary suspension of
Weibo's commenting features in April, were targeted at the company itself. Perhaps
it was the flurry of rumors in the wake of
the Bo Xilai corruption scandal; perhaps it was Sina's self-confessed failure
to enforce user registration, reported by Chinese Internet expert Bill Bishop
on his website Digicha, but the authorities have not been happy with
Weibo. The new guidelines look like Sina's attempt to get back in with the
propaganda department by better regulating its willful clientele.

And why does it matter?
Because if Weibo fails to satisfy the censors, it could still go the way of Twitter, now blocked in
China for users without the circumvention tools commonly used to access overseas
websites. Or the way of the copycat services like Fanfou which replaced
it, and were simply shut down.

For all the challenges
journalists face reporting on this power struggle, the biggest struggle is Sina's
as it tries to stay profitable while balancing the competing demands of censors
versus users. No one is more aware of what could happen when the grip tightens
all the way than the company themselves. Via Digicha:

"While the Microblog
Rules are not clear regarding the type and extent of punishment that will be
imposed on non-compliant microblogging service providers, we are potentially
liable...which may result in future punishment, including the deactivation of
certain features on Weibo, termination of Weibo operations or other punishments
determined by the Chinese government. Any of the above actions may have a
material and adverse impact on our share price."

Madeline Earp is senior researcher for CPJ’s Asia Program. She has studied Mandarin in China and Taiwan, and graduated with a master’s in East Asian studies from Harvard. Follow her on Twitter @cpjasia and Facebook @ CPJ Asia Desk.

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